Deborah Lloyd

The three were confirmed as members at the CFDA's bi-annual membership meeting on Nov. 7.

There's a trend right now in retail, and it's to make your store more than just a place to buy clothes. It's to make your store feel like a place you might want to live. And that's exactly what Kate Spade New York's Madison Avenue flagship—the brand's first-ever Upper East Side location—does. Creative director Deborah Lloyd walks us through all four floors.

You always know what you're going to get with Kate Spade: Feminine silhouettes, charming prints and quirky-cool accessories. And the Spring 2012 presentation was no exception. Creative Director Deborah Lloyd mined the life and work of Australian artist Florence Broadhurst whose incredibly interesting life story and gorgeous prints served as an interesting and fruitful source of inspiration. If you're not already familiar with Broadhurst, you should definitely Wikipedia her--like now. Born in Australia in 1899, Broadhurst travelled the world first as a singer, then a comedienne, before settling briefly in Shanghai where she set up a finishing school for girls. From there she went on to live in England and Australia, marry twice, found the Florence Broadhurst Wallpaper company, which became known for it's striking, hand-painted prints, and build an accomplished oeuvre as a landscape artist, only to be found murdered at the age 78 in 1977. (See, we told you it was interesting).

If Tuesday's earthquake taught us anything, it's that certain Californian elements just don't translate to the Atlantic coast--at least not without a lot of Twitter protest. But when we heard several months ago that Kate Spade New York, purveyor of all things preppy-pretty, was poised to team up with L.A. stylists Emily Current and Meritt Elliot (the same team behind those perfectly slouchy boyfriend jeans) for a special collection, our ears instantly perked up. On Wednesday night, we headed to Kate Spade New York's Broome Street boutique to witness the results. From leather-edged envelope clutches sparkling with charcoal-toned sequins to ostrich-skin shoulder bags and logo-free satchels sure to get even better with age and wear, every single piece in the duo's "Westward" lineup embodies heritage-steeped simplicity. In between sips of champagne and bites of sliders, we chatted with Kate Spade New York Creative Director Deborah Lloyd about how the collab came about. "It was all about joint admiration," she said, "plus, my own assistant wears Current/Elliott head-to-toe to work!" Lloyd explains that while us Manhattanites tend to go for a "matching, polished" aesthetic, she loved the notion of adding a Californian touch to her label's famously girly look. "It was all about the laid-back style and relaxed peace that they brought to the bags, the unusual materials and the mixing-up of things. But you still see those Kate Spade pops of polish and sweetness."

Last night we were honored to join our DIY guru Erica Domesek of P.S. I Made This to fete her new book at the Kate Spade New York store in SoHo. But since it's Erica, she of the golden glue gun, this wasn't your ordinary schmooze and have some drinks and eat some mini hotdogs type book party (though there were mini hotdogs and they were delicious). She put us to work. We, along with Design Sponge's Grace Bonney, Andrew Mukamal, Lonny Magazine's Michelle Adams, and Style Republic Magazine's Brittany Law, were tasked with DIY-ing one of Kate Spade New York's signature black leather London Totes. Sharpie and crafting site I Love To Create generously supplied us all with tons of great art supplies.